A new study reports that 83% of video shares are generated by just under 18% of internet users, with most shares taking place on Facebook, and Twitter. Not only are these power-users driving video shares, but they are sharing faster than ever before, with 42% of videos being shared across social network feeds within 3 days of upload.

The new report from Unruly, the Geography of Sharing, confirms that so-called ‘super-sharers’, around 18% of internet users, are driving over 83% of video shares across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest. The report analysed global video sharing patterns across 11 countries, including the U.S, U.K, and Brazil, and found that videos that evoked feelings of happiness were most likely to be shared.

Global Online Video Sharing: Highlights of Unruly Report

17.9% of internet users share videos across their social feeds more than once a week

This set of users accounts for over 83% of total video shares across internet

Video Sharing and Social Media: Facebook Most Active Platform

When it comes to sharing videos across the internet, Facebook is the #1 social site, particularly for Americans, 61.2% favor that social network to share video content. That’s just over the global average of 59.4%. Twitter is the second most popular social network for video sharing, with a global average of 13.8%, although this number is higher in South Korea, and in the U.S.Google+, Tumblr, and Pinterest are also very popular networks for sharing, but the more keen-eyed among you will notice the absence of the world’s biggest video-sharing site in the data. That’s because although YouTube facilitates social sharing to other networks via the video watch page, the site doesn’t lend itself to sharing that video (or any other) easily on YouTube itself.

When it comes to the number of average YouTube views, Brazil takes the lion’s share with 50.3%, followed by Germany at 32.3%, France at 30.9%, Germany, the UK at 26.2%, and the U.S. at 23.7%. Japan notched up the least amount of YouTube views at just 19.3%.

Global Video Sharing Trends: South Koreans Most Engaged

Unruly analysed video sharing data from users located in the U.S., UK, Brazil, France, Germany, South Korea, Sweden, S.E. Asia, Norway, and Japan. South Koreans, who enjoy the fastest broadband internet connections in the world, were found to be the most enthusiastic, and engaged video sharers. They are also the fastest sharers, with 20% of video shares taking place within the first 24 hours of upload. They are also the most likely to play, replay, and share a video ad. German viewers were the most likely to watch a video ad to completion (79%), with UK viewers close behind at 77%.

When it comes to the motivation to share a video across social media, happiness was the common denominator across the nations.

To take advantage of the different geographical approaches to video sharing, Olly Smith, EMEA MD at Unruly, said:

Local activation is the key to success and this is where data-driven insight, revealing the subtle differences in sharing habits by market and by demographic, can propel campaigns to global success.

The ‘Geography of Sharing’ video report can be downloaded via the Unruly site (quick registration required).